Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's operating systems unit, asked HTC last month to load Windows Phone as a second option on handsets with Google's rival software, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Myerson discussed cutting or eliminating the license fee to make the idea more attractive, the people said. The talks are preliminary and no decision has been made, two people said.

I hope HTC and every other Android OEM flips Microsoft the bird. The shoe's on the other foot now, Redmond.

Yes, the competition better buckle up due to the vast success that Intel has enjoyed in mobile so far. Oh, wait...

If you look at Anand's iPhone 5S benchmarks, the dual core A7 (ARMv8) beats Intel's quad core Bay Trail in a number of tests, despite the latter running in a tablet setup. And that is with a large amount of software still compiled for the old 32 bit ISA.

About the unified programming model, currently you can't even write an app which will run across all 3 Windows platforms (Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8) currently, and it is not the ARM/x86 split which is responsible for that.

Yes, the competition better buckle up due to the vast success that Intel has enjoyed in mobile so far. Oh, wait...

Right now, but that could change. Intel is not a slouch either and if you think they are not going to come after ARM with something you are crazy. Intel can also bring a level of compatibility with Windows that would be more difficult on ARM.

About the unified programming model, currently you can't even write an app which will run across all 3 Windows platforms (Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8) currently, and it is not the ARM/x86 split which is responsible for that.

But the app can be easily be recompiled right now for all of the platforms in Visual Studio. And, Microsoft has already stated that this is going to change in short order. I suspect that Windows 8.1 updates across the platforms will be the start of this. With Android, you can run on tablets and phones, but obviously with no desktop option nothing can be done.